by Rosie Bason, Mullumbimby, NSW
About 8 years ago I studied for a Diploma in Herbal Medicine, and part of that included two years studying Nutrition. I learned heaps, and I advised lots of clients to do this or try that, but I did not practise much of what I had learned. It’s amazing that we can gain all this knowledge, yet ignore it.
I thought I was healthy… but in truth I was often bloated, sometimes constipated, and almost always had a blocked nose to some extent. In fact, I had sinus issues my whole life. I thought it would be good to try to not eat too much cheese, but I loved it and couldn’t imagine life without it. I was never much of a milk drinker, but then again, I would have it in a cup of tea or coffee, although I never drank it on its own. So I just thought that a little bit couldn’t really be making a huge difference.
While I was studying I learned about gluten, gluten intolerance and coeliac disease, but I didn’t ever think it was an issue for me. I thought I could eat anything, and that is how I lived. I had never kept a food diary by writing down how I felt after eating certain foods, so I never even considered that the way I was feeling could be a result of what I had chosen to eat.
About 3 years ago, I was speaking with some friends who had chosen to not include dairy or gluten in their diet. I asked them why they had chosen to do this. They replied, because they felt better, and suggested I try it for a few months – if I did, then I would understand why it was worth it. Because you really needed to feel it in your own body – the effects of not eating dairy and gluten – to really understand and know it.
I had a moment where I thought, if I am preaching how they should eat to my clients, I should at least give it a go myself and see if eating gluten and dairy-free really makes a difference in how I feel, and if it’s worth the effort. I had tried giving up dairy in the past and failed terribly, so it was going to be a test for me. But this time I really made a commitment with myself to have absolutely none for 3 months.
At first it was a real challenge. What to snack on when you are used to having cheese and crackers? I had to change the way I cooked. I was used to eating 1kg of cheese between my daughter and myself in a week, so on the positive side of things I was saving money already. I used rice milk or soy milk in my tea and chose to drink herbal teas most of the time. I tried an olive oil substitute so I could cut out butter, and different rice pastas and flours so I wasn’t having the gluten. I found there are lots of alternatives in the supermarkets these days so it wasn’t as hard as I had expected – you just have to read labels, because milk products and gluten show up in the rarest of places.
Once I had adjusted to my new way of eating, I began to notice some changes. They didn’t all happen at once, but one thing I really noticed was not feeling so tired and heavy. My skin cleared up, I had less bloating and didn’t feel like I needed a cup of coffee to get me through the afternoon.
So I got to feel how the body never lies. What I identified was that I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me.
After my first 3 months I felt great so decided to stick with it for 6 months… then when I got to 6 months I carried on. Now it’s about two and a half years later and I feel that my body is really the healthiest it has ever been.
Words on Serge Benhayon 
You do adjust to such a diet and it becomes normal. I get a lot of comments of disbelief, that it would be hard (at the start yes it is) and that they feel sorry that I can’t just go wherever and eat anything available, that my life is restricted. Far from it, I now feel less restricted in how I feel and what I can do in a healthier body than weighted down by the effects from my food choices that are unsupportive or careless.
I feel there is a lot of sense in what you say Rosie that you have to try something to see if you like it or not and what affects the ‘something’ has on our bodies. I have found to feel something is to know something based on an experience not on what my mind tells me. My mind has led me astray so much that getting back to what makes sense to me has taken quite a few years. You know that thought you had when first tasting alcohol it tastes disgusting but our minds over ride this initial disgust by all sort of subtle trickery.
Many of us accept bloating and blocked sinuses as pretty much part of our normal, but it so doesn’t have to be that way.
It was funny how I tried to hang onto dairy as I went from organic milk, to A1, to goats and then sheep’s milks and cheeses to find they all had a similar effect on my body.
Our body doesn’t lie but so often we pretend that we are not listening even when there is that small voice of awareness that knows the truth.
Health-wise, it is good to practice what we learn. Yet, let’s be honest, what we learn from the mainstream and from many alternatives to them will not truly do it.
There are many conflicting opinions in mainstream and alternatives as to what is best for the body; whereas listening to and honouring our bodies delivers the truth for our body.
Thank you Rosie for sharing your experience with cutting out dairy and gluten. I have made the same experience like you describe and on top of it my asthma went away! So for me not eaten gluten and dairy is the best medicine ever . . . and now I am wondering perhaps there are more people out there like me who could cure their asthma only by just cutting out dairy and gluten.
I am sure cutting out dairy would benefit many people with respiratory and allergy problems, but we have been so led to believe that dairy is an essential part of our diet that we override what our bodies say.
Not feeling an afternoon slump whatsoever is so normal for me now that I can’t imagine trying to work through feeling foggy in the afternoon with endless cups of caffinated drinks to get me through. I would rely on tea, coffee and coke to get me through as I was utterly exhausted. The closest I get to a caffinated drink these days is a fizzy water and that’s only once in a while, mainly when its hot.
Nothing counts more than our own experience, it was great that you were offered this advice to do without dairy for 3 months and feel the results, instead of a lot of the whys and wherefores for you to stop eating dairy and gluten.
I used to think that a bit of blocked up nose and bloating were just normal things and never considered it to be my body telling me that it didn’t quite agree with that. Our body is communicating so much all the time, and it’s amazing how we masterfully shut it down by overloading it with food and other stimulants.
Our body is indeed very wise, and communicates that wisdom with us; it is sad that frequently we turn off these messages by over eating or eating foods that numb or over stimulate ourselves.
It shows how we can believe words and give our power to them assuming they are true, such as foods called “healthy” such a gluten/wheat and dairy, yet they may be incredibly unhealthy for our bodies. It’s reminded me of the wider picture of words, that what we may call and think of as “love” for example is not healthy for the body either, and that true love is felt from the body just as truly “healthy foods” are.
We can be and are frequently deceived by words, ‘healthy’ and ‘gluten free’ products frequently have a whole host of unhealthy ingredients. It is always worth checking what ingredients are in a product, and also feeling into if the product is something that will actually support our body.
It is great to try something for a longer period, like 3 months, to see if it is supporting because by that time the choice to stick with it is much easier. It gives the reactions that can come from stopping something the space to come up and clear and to see the true difference it makes in our body.
When we make any changes to our day to day lives sometimes it can take awhile for its true value to be really noticed and appreciated – a change in diet can be a great example of this.
It is a great idea to keep a food diary, and record how you feel after eating certain foods which would be a great support in deciding what foods to continue to eat and which food products to eliminate.
If your body is the healthiest it’s ever been, having made those changes, isn’t that all we need to do is experiment and see what works and be our own food expert and counsellor by listening to the true intelligence that comes from our bodies.
That makes sense, to listen to and honour our bodies wisdom, yet many people have chosen to ignore what wisdom is being shared, ‘I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me.’
I find my body is incredibly precise in what it needs or doesn’t need or what works or doesn’t work, from different different food types, to different vegetables, to what exercise or rest it needs, to how you prepare for your day – it’s amazing how our bodies know how everything needs to be done down to the finest detail.
Changing our behaviours – from what we eat, to how we deal with things – happens quite naturally when we bring awareness to what we’re bringing into our body and how it makes us feel.
Our body does not lie and yet so many people are living a lie… Surely humanity will someday soon join the dots.
There is a lot of hype in advertising and the media, and now research through science is at times corrupted by who it’s funded by and what outcome they are seeking, plus there is a plethora of information about everything on the internet – but what’s true? To wade through this information thick environment we do have a steady source of the truth – the body, If we are willing to listen and be honest about what the body is communicating, we can readily find out the truth about things. For example we can easily find research that states that red wine, chocolate, and coffee are good for us, but what harmful symptoms do they produce in the body? The body doesn’t lie, it’s very truthful, communicative, and responsive about pretty much everything, not just food and beverages.
It can get confusing at times as to what is true and what is not true with so much conflicting information out there, what do we believe? That is where the body comes in, as our body only speaks truth, we simply have to listen to and honour what it shares.
I very naturally stopped eating bread about 18 years ago when I was pregnant. It wasn’t like I thought about it, I just stopped wanting to eat anything bread-like. I now know that it was because it made me feel bloated and contributed towards an afternoon dip in my energy. Several years later I stopped eating all dairy except cheese on occasion. Again, it wasn’t like I thought about it, I just stopped wanting it. Although I didn’t have any obvious physical signs other than the two above, I now have a much deeper understanding of why I chose to cut dairy and gluten out of my diet. 18 years ago there was very little to substitute for gluten but like you have found, Rosie, there is so much available now that it makes it easy to maintain a gluten and dairy free diet.
It is really interesting how much more vital and energised we can feel when we take gluten and dairy out of our diets, the only way to know if this works is to try it for yourself and to notice the difference this makes to your health and well being.
Feeling it in your own body really is the only way to get to know how truly amazing the body can feel when you cut out dairy and gluten.
Another positive impact of refining the diet in this way is natural weight loss. My BMI is now right where it should be, when for years it was too high. And I find I have more energy for the change too and am enjoying the lightness in my diet.
The more I refine my diet in accordance with how my body feels and responds to certain foods, the more ‘delicious’ I feel inside. It’s like a trade off – yes we can have gluten, dairy, alcohol, sugar et al, but there is a price to pay – and the more I become aware of how innately harmonious my body is, the less I am willing to pay that price.
Our bodies do not lie… And that’s extraordinary considering as for most people the disconnection between the head and the heart and the body is so rampantly obvious
‘I never even considered that the way I was feeling could be a result of what I had chosen to eat.’ It is interesting how we feel the effects of food in our bodies but not really take the time to consider making the choice to eliminate that food from our diet, I realise how much clearer my mind has become by eliminating dairy and gluten, the brain fog has cleared up and my body feels so much lighter.
I think many, many people could relate to not knowing how they would live without cheese, I know I was a cheese lover once. Ironically, we do not question how we can live with constant sinus issues? When I first quit dairy many years ago my sinus issues cleared up completely and did so for an expansive time. Now, however I have found many substitutes and it looks like I am now responding to all the creamy dairy free substitutes in the same way as I did cheese! Sounds crazy but it might be time for another experiment by cutting out all the milk and creamy things, dairy free or not and as the body never lies I think I might not like the result of this test but I do not like having sinus issues either so it’s time for a change me thinks!
‘I never even considered that the way I was feeling could be a result of what I had chosen to eat’. I ate something with gluten yesterday which I never do having been gluten free for quite some time, and omg, I am feeling so tired and lethargic… and I am just up. That choice will not be made again.
Rosie your blog reminded me on how many professionals there are who don’t take note of their own words, I have been going to hospital regularly over the last 25 years and I observe how many of the staff are overweight and unfit, if we all start to make different choices by listening to our body, eventually more and more people will start making the same choice and learn the importance of listening to what your body is saying.
There was a stage in my life when I had asthma and sinus issues so bad that I was put on steroids, the side effects from the medication felt awful so I was determined to find another way. I decided to give up dairy and see what would happen and within about a month all symptoms had completely disappeared and now 12 years later I have never had asthma or a sinus issue since. Quite extraordinary how we can support our bodies by simply listening to its wisdom.
It really is, as you say, Anna, ‘quite extraordinary how we can support our bodies by simply listening to its wisdom.’ I also find it quite extraordinary how so many people suffering from asthma and sinus issues continue to seemingly quite happily take steroids and other medication with no question as to the effect these steroids and medications are having on their bodies or whether there is an alternative.
It’s like the body has been communicating the same thing over and over and over, and it is very possible that we have been hearing it all along but just as some noise or chatter, and when we surrender we start to hear the truth in that. I definitely have more willingness to hear what the body has to say, but I have feeling that there’s much more to be appreciated.
To have the knowledge but not being in the livingness of it, it is a fraud on everybody; a fraud that is not lived as such because it is based on a given up foundation that is also shared with those seeking help. So, we get the advice but on top of that we get a message from the body of the ‘expert’ who says: do not bother, look at me!
I am currently studying a course on nutrition. It is fascinating to learn about food and how our body processes it. The best thing though is paying attention to how my body feels. No book or course of study can tell you as much as your body can.
The body is our wise counsel and its expert advise comes free of charge but we do not always listen.
The body is indeed a source of free wise counsel.
Dairy products and the much touted calcium connection do not have a leg to stand on when examined more closely and after all, is it possible that cow’s milk is for calves and was not meant for humans? Japan for example has traditionally never been a dairy-consuming country and there are many other examples like this. Without the lobbyists, dairy products would not be as ubiquitous as they are now.
Very true gabrieleconrad. I’ve noticed there have been many advertising campaigns for milk recently, but there is heaps more calcium in many green leafy vegetables. People are slowly taking note of the effects of certain foods on the body and removing them from their diet.
When we make a commitment to being aware of what we are feeling in our body we discover that there is so much more to be aware of.
Linking what we eat to how we feel is key to resurrecting our true health and wellbeing. It is also an art we all need to learn, master and then share with others how to do it.
Being aware of what we eat and the effect it has on our body is vital to our wellbeing.
Making decisions from and with our body will always be the most honouring decision for our well-being. Just relying on the mind, desires, wants and sensations often has the opposite effect.
So true Rosie – sometimes it simply has to be tried to understand the difference with-in our bodies. It’s one of those situations where standing on the side-line looking in doesn’t give an understanding of what it actually feels like to our bodies to be free of gluten and dairy, when the symptoms of an intolerance are a little more subtle.
Super cool experiment. I know of many people giving this a go and noticing the positive effects on the body but then when the time they set themselves is up, they decide they’d prefer to feel worse and eat whatever they want, which is really interesting.
I wonder if this has something to do with wanting to belong and go along with the crowd so to speak? Sometimes other people’s acceptance of our choices to care for ourselves can cause a little reaction. It’s possible we prefer to avoid these situations and put up with our own consequences than have to look at the ones coming from outside of ourselves.
It is curious how we tend to be very quick with telling others what to do but often do not apply the same advice to ourselves, a lot of the time not even aware that what we preach does not match our deeds. It makes such a difference to get advice from someone who himself adheres to that same advice, as it comes from a lived experience and they can give you a body experience of how it feels and this delivers so much more than just empty words.
When we share from lived experience, it has substance, and can be felt, whereas if we give advice that we do not live it feels like empty words that have nothing.
There seems to be so much conflicting advice out there when it comes to what is a healthy diet. For years I was a vegetarian and my health was appalling, and then when I gave up dairy and gluten things really started to pick up, and a lot of my health and weight issues sorted themselves out.
And the situation with conflicting advice as to what diet is healthiest for us continues, there are carnivore diets and so many different fads out there – how do we know what is true?
It’s beautiful how a loving choice to commit to this has fed you back the health and vitality it has. So many of us are stuck in patterns of eating that we are completely unaware of how detrimental they can be until we offer ourselves an opportunity to stop and feel the difference.
No our bodies never lie but as you have pointed out Rosie, do we stop, listen and respond. There is no doubt that listening to our bodies and its innate wisdom is the key to living a life of love, light, truth and purpose.
Why do people choose a profession that studies an issue they have an issue with?
This is an important question since mastering the subject is always easier than mastering the livingness that honours the subject. The problem then becomes that without such livingness they do not have bodies really capable of delivering what is true regarding the subject they have mastered.
Coming to the understanding that “the body never lies” was nothing short of life changing for me – eventually. Firstly I had to get past the fact that those messages it had been giving me for so long were actually wisdom that it was sharing with me and that it wasn’t just being a nuisance and trying to spoil my fun. Then I had to look at what had happened as a result of me ignoring those messages – there were a few moments of berating myself with this realisation but they didn’t last too long for as much as we would often like to, we can’t change the past. But once all these self-imposed speed bumps had been dismantled life definitely did start to change through the self loving choices that I felt to make, and still do.
I love that instead of continuing to preach to your clients you decided to try it out for yourself, this is so missing among health professionals, for example, so many doctors drink but how can you tell someone the benefits of not drinking if you drink yourself? I love your approach here.
When advice is given without any lived experience, then it has no substance, feels empty, and so has no true support for another.
Like you Rosie, for years I used to drop wheat for a bit and notice the difference in me, but somehow I still went back onto it again … until eventually I decided to drop it, it took time and I gave myself that time and reading this line ‘I really made a commitment with myself ‘ is in fact what I did, I committed to it, and I’ve now not had wheat or gluten for over 9 years and it’s made a huge difference in how I am. I lost weight, not planned and am less bloated and I just feel more myself, with a clearer head and less fogginess. With dairy, I gradually over the year reduced it until eventually it just stopped when I noticed I would get lots of sinus and stuffiness and stopped it and again it’s been a huge support. One thing I feel is very important with this is to explore, to take your own time and way with it and find a way that works for you – it’s not about a diet or a stricture but noticing how our body feels after we eat and how foods impact us and taking the steps we feel to take to change things. It’s being our own science experiment.
Thank you Rosie for sharing, I gave up on dairy long ago because of the bloated feelings it gave me, bread did not sit well in my tummy, so listening to my body made it easy to do away with these foods The body is so supportive with us when we listen to it and make the changes.
Thank you Rosie for sharing your experiences on giving up Gluten and Dairy and foods that they are added to, or are naturally in. I agree that I would not have thought just a little of something like dairy could have such a detrimental effect on my body.
Everything I learned at university I can apply and continue to learn more – it is a flat level of understanding, but the most I have known about life has come from my body, and my Soul which is so much richer than strict knowledge.
It’s also interesting with what you say about change Rosie. We live in a world that is so used to instant gratification that we expect change to be just that, instant. While indeed the process of change can be swift and efficient and felt immediately, sometimes it also can be slow and steady, and to appreciate its full effect it can take several months even years as your body rebuilds and heals. This is a fact we all need to accept.
‘I never even considered that the way I was feeling could be a result of what I had chosen to eat.’ It’s quite funny really. We continually make loads of lifestyle choices every day that affects our long term health but we still tend to focus more on the instant gratification and immediate return of our choices rather than seeing the accumulation of what we are doing may not necessarily be healthy for us in the long term.
I agree – the body never lies, but the mind does, all the time! It tries and very often succeeds in overriding what the body is clearly saying. Just this afternoon, someone tried very hard making me eat chocolate – ‘it’s good for you’, ‘full of polyphenol’, ‘it’s so delicious’ – and it was interesting how they thought I was very disciplined and fighting off the temptation in order to say no to chocolate. It’s never about saying ‘no’ to certain food, it’s simply a process of becoming honest and loving with our body, and it keeps changing. I wish my friends would give it a try and be surprised one day.
When I speak to people these days about eliminating things like gluten and dairy from the diet very often there seems to be a perception that it is a difficult thing to do. My experience has been, with due acknowledgement to my wife who has been a great support, that in fact it is quite simple. We eat meat, we eat eggs, we eat vegetables, we eat fish, and some fruits – and actually there is great variety in our diet. When we look at what we can eat rather than what we are choosing not to eat, there is a very different slant on our perception and eating well and in support of our wellbeing can in fact be light and fun.
I, too, ‘adored’ cheese but similarly after a trial period of not eating any I felt so much better. When I did taste some once it tasted so foul I spat it out. It is now nearly ten years since I last ate any and to my surprise I do not miss it. Funny how we can say we ‘adore’ things yet when we listen to our body we discover we had made ourselves like something rather than coming from a truth.
Often we don’t even know much about the effects of gluten and diary and we wonder why we are bloated and have sinus problems. Its so common to eat dairy and gluten. Being brought up vegetarian that was mainly what we were brought up with dairy, gluten, rice, wheat, vegetables etc. So I often felt bloated, tired and had colds. When I got more awareness about gluten and dairy, I began to cut it out and could see the difference. Now if I have a little cheese or bread, I can feel it straight away in my body.
It is great to come back to this blog Rosie, and appreciate how much more I honor my body and the great long lasting changes this has brought to my life. When I was in my 20’s I experienced bloating from gluten and dairy but just passed it of as something that everyone experienced, was a part of life, and learnt to live with it. However it progressed to me feeling often foggy in the morning and lacking the vitality that I had as a child. So I began to question my diet. Consequently I found that excluding gluten and dairy in my diet had huge effect on my body and my clarity, and I realised then that my body had actually been communicating with me. However as the years passed I went in and out of honoring what my body was signalling to me, and as such went on and off gluten and dairy. Now I have come to a place within myself of consistently honoring what my body is reflecting to me, and now live with far more vitality, clarity, and well-being, and I continue to refine what supports me to continue to live with this connection through my every day.
I love how you describe listening to your body as an honouring of it, Carola Woods. Because that is exactly what it is, an honouring of our bodies when we eat according to what feels right for our bodies.
That’s a great point that food affects not only our body and how we feel but our clarity. I know if I eat the wrong food or too much food I feel heavy and much more unclear in my thoughts, it’s a bit like our bodies are these amazing barometers that require constant fine-tuning to work at optimum, and food is just one small aspect of that fine-tuning.
The body never lies. How true. And so we can trust whatever it reflects back to us when it bloats, is in pain, has indigestion, a headache, feels heavy, we lack energy and feel tired etc. The body is like our most honest friend. Perhaps we should treat it accordingly.
Isn’t that interesting how we could spend so much time on studying about our body, yet manage not to develop affinity with it as a result? When our ‘study’ is merely an intellectual knowledge accumulation exercise, it doesn’t go very far.
Brilliant Rosie. Many people believe they love their gluten and dairy so much that life without these things would be awful. I was one of those people and I can absolutely say that the exact opposite is true. Eliminating gluten and dairy from my diet has resulted in a body that is able to enjoy life.
Keeping a food diary is an awesome thing to do, to write down what is going on when we reach for a certain food, what has sparked that motivation, and getting really honest about this, and also clocking what happens after we eat certain foods, how we feel and what we feel like doing consequently.
How come we give so much power to these substances when the true power lies within ourselves?
If my body could talk out loud it would say thank you for listening and giving up gluten and dairy, I feel so much better.
I was listening to a presentation series recently on the effects of gluten on our gut. One doctor was sharing that the gluten found in wheat particularly, but other sources as well, caused micro tears in the lining of our gut creating inflammation and then all associated symptoms as a result. There is some great research around now confirming what our bodies have already been telling us. But as you say Rosie are we willing to listen to our bodies’ constant messages, or will we hand over our inner wisdom and walking knowledge to those that apparently “know best”, but know nothing of our own bodies.
interesting that so many of the studies about people’s reactions to gluten say debunkingly that many of these people can actually tolerate gluten… Now isn’t that interesting word tolerate… one of the classic definitions is to put up with… Well it seems that humans can put up with a lot… We can put up with daily ingestions of poison and psychoactive drugs …( Alcohol and caffeine) we can put up with relationships that have no foundations of love or trust… We can put up with a lot of things that these we can tolerate a lot of things… But are they really good for us and do they serve us?
“What I identified was that I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me.’ In the rush of life around me I too am guilty of what you share here Rosie. Our body is so wise. It tells us when it is thirsty and tired, or vital and alive, but I am finding more and more that our real wisdom comes from us understanding not only what it is feeling but why it is feeling that way.
I am re reading your blog tonight Rosie,
You share how tired you felt when you were eating gluten and dairy. If I then consider that to counter the tiredness that many others may also be feeling, I start to get a picture, an understanding as to why sugar and caffeine is consumed at the rate it is in the world. Could such stimulants be reduced remarkably by a choice to consider that how we eat impacts on how the body feels.
Many years ago I was suffering from chronic sinus issues and asthma like symptoms, it got so bad that I was put on steroids to help me breathe properly. After a week or so on the steroids I started to get side-effects from the medication that I didn’t like, I knew something needed to change. I cut out all dairy from my diet and within a couple of months all my symptoms miraculously cleared up. Our bodies hold a deep wisdom and knowing, choosing to listen to our bodies is an absolute game changer.
Ah cheese! I used to be a cheese fiend too – couldn’t imagine life without it. But naturally over a period of raising my awareness about food and feeling a VERY strong call from my body to go dairy-free, I left it behind and have never looked back. I used to be mucusy in my nose and throat most of the time – sniffing and clearing my throat incessantly driving those around me crazy no doubt! Now, this is very rare and when it happens I know to look at what and how I have been eating that has brought it about. Its pretty much always linked to comfort-eating!
Advice given but not lived can feel empty, hollow and sometimes dare I say it, even a little hypocritical.
If only our ‘diplomas’ and ‘education’ around health taught us to truly listen to our bodies – what then, would we choose, and recommend to our clients and those around us, from our own lived experience? Rather than a knowledge that resides in the head…?
“…you really needed to feel it in your own body”
This has been my experience also Rosie Bason – the difference felt in the body without gluten and without dairy, has been so marked, that I could now never imagine going back to eating even a smidgen of these things in my diet at all. I feel so much lighter and clearer – physically, mentally and in my whole outlook on life, that I can’t deny that these foods were holding me back from being who I naturally can be.
Our body never lies and it’s interesting though what we will do to ignore or block the messages our bodies are giving us because we believe we need a certain food or drink. My tongue used to flare up when I would eat certain gluten bread and biscuits, I can hardly close my mouth but yet I would try to eat it each time because I wanted it. Now I haven’t eaten gluten and dairy for 7 years and don’t have mouth or bloating or upset stomach problems anymore.
When we want to defend that certain kind of foods are good for us even though our body says they are not then it’s a perfect point to start looking at why we need that particular food.
I totally agree Rosie – our body gives us a marker for what truly supports us and what doesn’t!
It is soooo alarming what milk and gluten will show up in in certain products. It goes to show that our processed foods really are a science experiment and not really food of any nutritious quality,
And what’s awesome about your experiment is that you got to feel for yourself how the body never lies, and this extends well beyond food. What an amazing gift to give yourself, learning more about the body you live in. It’s more than any text book will ever offer you.
Rosie it’s awesome that you realised that practicing what you preach is so important. When others feel that you are sharing from a lived experience, it makes the knowledge so much more believable, so much more real. There is enough lip service going on in the world, that we need more people like you.
Yes the body never lies and mine had been telling me for years that gluten did not suit it but I chose to ignore it because it seemed too hard to adjust my diet but when I finally made the decision (and went diary free at the same time because I had a cold and was already cutting out dairy whenever that happened) I felt the difference within hours and have never looked back. I had mentioned being tested for food intolerances to practitioners I had seen but no-one seemed interested in following it up so awesome that you are now congruent in how you live and what you suggest to clients.
When Naturopaths and other health practitioners are willing to ‘walk the talk’ it is very inspiring to their clients. For many years Naturopaths had suggested I remove wheat from my diet to see if I was having a reaction to it (I knew I was!). It felt like a deprivation, that my body was letting me down. I did do a trial for a month but can’t recall the results, except it all felt too hard. I’ve always known that cheese was not good for me but I loved it so much I could not imagine depriving myself of that. However when someone who ate neither gluten nor dairy suggested I try it and see how I felt after a month I was willing, at my own pace, to explore removing these foods from my diet without any sense of deprivation. I soon began to feel better and my body shape change, and my weight started to drop, so there was never any temptation to re-introduce these foods into my diet.
Rosie I love how your willingness to experiment has lead to a long-term change and great benefits to your health.
There is no denying that choosing to not put certain foods into my body has allowed me to feel a constant state of steadiness. It is quite incredible really to feel how lovely I can feel and the difference pre and post the changes.
For many the thought of giving up gluten and dairy is just too much, it feels too hard. But this is because the education and understanding of illness is that being only when the body is completely ill. What if our education about illness came from the vitality and aliveness of the body and that if this was not felt then it means the body is ill would we then look upon our food choices in a different way. And maybe support our body to again be vital?
“After my first 3 months I felt great so decided to stick with it for 6 months… then when I got to 6 months I carried on. Now it’s about two and a half years later and I feel that my body is really the healthiest it has ever been.” I too used to love my dairy and decided to give it up – alongside gluten – to see how I felt. Now – about six years or so on – I too feel so much healthier. Yet there is very little information given out by dieticians etc in the field about this amazing support to one’s well-being.
I love how your share Rosie that ‘It’s amazing that we can gain all this knowledge, yet ignore it’ when it comes to our own bodies. This is why life is a lived experience and as students of our own lives all that we learn needs to be understood and lived in practical real terms, not just in theory.
“I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me.” This certainly resonates with me. If I liked the taste of something in my mouth, I would ignore the feeling that some foods had on my body. When I was inspired by Serge Benhayon to feel the effect of different foods in my body then the choice to not eat gluten and dairy was an interesting experiment with results that surprised me. It was a great choice. How come I had ignored what my body had been telling me all my life?
Imagine if on our first day of school, we were sat down and told… Okay now the most important thing is to really listen to your body, and here we are going to learn how to do this… Everything else is secondary to this, because through this your lives will be fulfilling, and you will most definitely know self-love.
It’s amazing the myriad of ways the body tries to tell us that it doesn’t approve of our choices and equally amazing is how often we choose to not listen and override what we feel, ignoring the messages that are there to support us. When we stop being so stubborn at our own expense, the difference to our health is truly remarkable.
When massive companies like General Mills in the USA acknowledge that they have to develop Gluten Free products, we have a momentum in society that is not a fad, but a simple recognition of something that is glaringingly obvious if we simply choose to listen to our body.
What a loyal friend the body is to us!
Absolutely felixschumacher8. Even after everything we throw at it, it still works really hard to keep us functioning well and healthily.
I have found that a gluten and dairy free diet is so much gentler on my body and digestion. At first I too thought it would be difficult to give up certain cheeses and dairy foods but the difference was so marked that it came about quite easily, sugar can be a stumbling block for me at times! Thanks for sharing Rosie.
I have cut out gluten and dairy for about four years now. But there have been a very few days when I had gluten or dairy as part of some food I had. All I can say is – the day after having it felt in both cases heavy. And gluten made me seek for sweets and milk made me seek more creamy stuff – which in fact made me feel a little phlegmatic and lazy. It definitely made me feel comfort first but heavy there after – sometime up to a week.
I have to agree with you Rosie, our bodies don’t lie. In actual fact its symptoms and signs of dis-ease can speak to us quite loudly and if we actually tune in and listen to it, it can provide a great source of truth.
Absolutely Suse, as Serge Benhayon always says ‘the body is the marker of all truth’.
It’s just amazing to hear and feel the response the body gives and I can’t believe I could possibly have ignored it for so long. It’s a joy to be supporting my body to be it’s truly vital self, we are a team now rather than working against and ignoring each other like we are in separation.
As Rosie says, the body never lies, we just have to have the ears to listen, and the common sense to act upon what we then hear.
Yes great point Chris, the body’s wisdom is our greatest friend and will constantly support us every step of the way.
I was totally surprised about what was happening in my body after eliminating gluten and dairy. I lose weight even though I ate more than ever before. That made me pondering why is it so – my answer was very simple – that my body so much more like food without gluten and dairy because it was not so exhausting to digest it. My whole body shape has changed now and my feeling is my body is now how my body wants to be.
“So I got to feel how the body never lies. What I identified was that I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me”.
At times I find it quite challenging to really listen to what my body is trying to tell me. Your blog is a lovely reminder and inspiration to stop and really feel what is there to be felt; for me stop is the operative word!
The best way to give advice is from our livingness.
‘It’s a really great feeling when the penny finally drops that what you eat actually affects how you feel later.’ A very clear, simple and true statement.
The first thing I noticed when I stopped eating gluten and dairy is that I started eating more vegetables and salads. Eating bread and pasta (or potatoes) always had me going for seconds and usually my belly would be too full to eat much of the healthy alternatives that the body is craving for. Secondly the effect on my waist line was unbelievable.The belly fat I could never get rid of before, magically disappeared.
It’s a really great feeling when the penny finally drops that what you eat actually affects how you feel later. It’s the biggest self-induced set-up. Because it means we have the ability to choose how good to feel simply by what we choose to put into our mouths – every time. I came to the conclusion that my body was my very own research laboratory as it was constantly giving me feedback on my own self-inflicted ‘experiments’. I chose to heed that feedback and now a once cheeseaholic doesn’t even contemplate it – ever. My mood, my vitality and my weight have never been better.
Rosie, I was eating a diet which was almost like vegan but adding fish and seafood to it during 9 years almost. I use to make my own meat substitute called seitan and was very proud of it but it’s like a loaf of gluten cooked during 20 mins. I thought I was kind of healthy but my weight was a bit like a yoyo. I have stopped gluten now for almost 6 years and never felt so good.
Rosie, I love how you listened to your body and trusted it to tell you the truth. I, after 8 years of no gluten and diary, sometimes still crave for that amazing looking cake or meat pie, but I never crack because I know for certain what it will do to my body and how I feel so there is never any angst or resistance, but if I didn’t eat it because someone told me not to.. that would be a very different story and the agony and the struggle of that would be awful. So for me as it has been for the past 8 or 9 years I never let anyone tell me, I listen to suggestions and advice and feel for myself whether that will work for me. The body is truly remarkable and knows far more than we give it credit for.
Indeed Caroline, our body is a remarkable asset that we too often depreciate by not valuing its innate wisdom and giving it the credit it’s well and truly worthy of.
This blog is so honest Rosie and I could so relate! I used to consider that I was healthy and yet never considered that there might be a connection with feeling tired, bloated, constipated, heavy etc. with the food I ate – for me, I considered that my diet was better than most of the population and that how my body actually felt was simply ‘normally healthy’! When I started to pay more attention to how certain foods actually felt in my body, it was a bit of a wake-up call… but easy in one sense, because as long as I was honest about how I felt in my body after eating certain foods, the choice whether or not to eat those foods became a much more tangible one (i.e. did I feel bloated after eating certain foods, was I eating because I was tired or wanting to avoid doing something else etc.) There were and are still times when I override what my body is telling me, but the more fine-tuned and aware of my body I become, the quicker I’m able to receive these messages and the less intense the messages need to be!
It s amazing how, at times, we can get the knowledge then ignore it. After reading your blog Rosie I was pondering the difference between knowledge and wisdom; there are certainly times when we do not use the knowledge we have wisely.
To me wisdom is when we use our knowledge wisely according to our inner knowing.
I agree Rosie the body doesn’t lie at all, I used to be a size 18 and I felt bloated and tired all the time. I am now a healthy size 10 and have more energy and vitality than I did 30 years ago due to eliminating dairy and gluten from my diet.
Great blog Rosie. I gave up milk 20 years ago as it made me feel sick with painful stomach ache and my naturopath recommended it. I was amazed how much better I felt and since then I have sensitized my body and can feel the reaction of it. Anyway I would sometimes still eat ice-cream and cheese, but with my bodies messages and feeling uncomfortable I would choose those things less and less. I never knew about gluten, but I avoided bread and rarely ate pasta or pizza as it would made me feel so full and bloated and totally constipated. So with what I was feeling in my body I already did not choose certain foods and the effect on my body had an impact on my taste. With the time I would not feel to eat this food anymore. But only when I left it completely I realized how much I was still eating of it and how it was even in small amounts making me dense, tired and bloated. Today I would never ever put it into my mouth, I just consider it non edible. I live on top of a bakery and every morning I get the delicious smell from croissants and freshly baked bread, but it does not trigger any desire to eat it in me, its like going through a perfume shop, it smells good, but my body is not triggered wanting to eat it. I got the the point that my body knows what to eat and it is amazing to feel so free of the need to indulge in all this gluten and dairy loaded food.
Super blog Rosie. I realised when reading your blog that by not putting dairy and gluten into our bodies, that the body actually saves a lot of energy. So it makes perfect sense to not have the need for any stimulance (or at least less) in the afternoon in the form of coffee, cookies, sweets, energy drinks, etc. I love to be gluten-, dairy- and sugar free. I would never ever have been reconnected with my own Precious Love if I would not have given up these ingredients. But I have to say that we also need to address why we took them in the first place, otherwise it’s ‘just’ discipline, rather than Love.
I was curious about how giving up gluten would feel in my body. I used to notice that after eating bread I would feel very sleepy and if I could, I would literally have to lie down and would often fall asleep. The affect was like I had been drugged. Stopping gluten stopped that knocked out feeling, and because I felt so much more energised I never went back to eating it.
I can so relate to that Debra. The thing is I never wanted to know, looking back now, it was so absolutely obvious that gluten and diary were making me unhealthy yet I chose to ignore all the signs because I still wanted to eat those foods. No way was I prepared to give up my comfort. Why? Because certain foods stopped me from feeling. It wasn’t till I met Serge Benhayon who supported me to understand the world and to give me the skills and understandings to deal with things before that I felt I couldn’t was I able to start to give up my comfort foods. So you can see diets alone don’t work, we need to understand why we eat what we eat otherwise it is just a constant battle of will power with no respite in site.
When i gave up diary and gluten what really struck me was how much more sensitive I became to other ingredients, it was as if dairy and gluten had dulled my bodies natural responses to foods.
I can really relate to your blog Rosie. Like you, my nose was rarely unblocked when I was in my younger years and my digestive system was a complete disaster. Upon being tested and diagnosed as allergic to gluten and dairy, I gave it up and after a few months was enjoying a body that functioned properly and a nose that I could breathe through! Thankfully there are, as you say, many alternatives to cook and eat; it just takes a little organisation. I now wonder how many people are still suffering out there, just through lack of information.
It’s funny how we react differently to different foods. For me, it was dairy that caused my runny or blocked nose. Since I have removed it from my diet, I hardly get colds or the flu and the persistent runny nose is gone. The hardest thing for me to give up was cheese. It has taken me some years to trial and cook different recipes that are gluten and dairy free, but it’s been well worth the effort because I feel so much better in my body.
It’s beautiful to listen to our bodies and choose not to eat what doesn’t feels right, and sometimes when I choose differently, I can feel again why I chose to not eat those substances any more. As I am more honest with myself of how I am feeling, I am also more honouring to what I eat, and truly feel what my body does and doesn’t like.
I have had a similar experience with food, particularly with gluten and dairy products. Inspired by my sister and her husband I tried eating dairy and gluten free and I was surprised how much lighter, less tired and vital I started to feel. So I have been refining the food that I eat ever since. It is amazing how big of a difference it makes what food and how much food I eat during the day to my bodily well being as well as my mental state of being and the thoughts I have or not have.
A great story Rosie. Especially inspiring how just giving something new a go can change your whole routine for the better as well as your health.
Awesome blog Rosie. It’s true – to feel the benefits of a gluten and dairy free diet you really have to try it for yourself. I now feel so much less exhausted all the time and I feel like I can actually get out of bed and enjoy life. Not just face it. A lot of people think they don’t have a lot of dairy already and that it can’t have that much of an affect on how you feel. More and more I begin to realise how much the tiniest amount still has an implication in my body. It’s great to cut it all out for a period when trying to see the difference.
Yes Emily and I have noticed how frequently dairy, sugar and gluten turn up on the ingredients list of foods you would not expect. I picked up some plain roasted chicken in my local supermarket the other day and saw that it had sugar in it!!??? This has made me vigilant when it comes to buying pre-packed or pre-cooked food.
This was the same for me too Rosie. I was inspired by my parents to give gluten and diary free eating a go and have never looked back since. Not only has my awareness and understanding of what truly is needed by my body gone up so too has my cooking skills and confidence in the kitchen.
Your last sentence: “Not only has my awareness and understanding of what truly is needed by my body gone up so too has my cooking skills and confidence in the kitchen” apllies to me too, Joshua. With my body as a guide I started experimenting in the kitchen and discovered I actually love cooking and I am great at it.
Many years ago I stopped eating dairy, especially dairy with sugar, as it gave me an awful bloated feeling. I wasn’t big on bread, so when I choose to stop eating gluten I did notice a difference. It is an ongoing learning process for me to be really aware of what my body is telling me about my food choices.
It’s amazing how our bodies can like something one time and then all of a sudden, not want to eat that same thing the next. How awesome our bodies are if we just listen to them and honour more what the body truly needs to support it.
Thank you for sharing your loving commitment to yourself Rosie by eliminating gluten and dairy from your diet. How amazing the changes we can feel in our bodies after just a few short months. I have found listening to my body regarding my food choices is a constantly changing thing and sometimes I can be stubborn but then my body’s response will alert me to an unloving choice and I can then choose differently next time.
In the sixties doctors were advertising cigarettes saying they were healthy for you and relieved stress. How many professions today still offer advice that they themselves don’t follow? I have often mused at people in professions that have no life experience in area that they are practicing in, one example a marriage councilor that is not married. Or, as you had experienced Rosie, a Nutritionist that had said “eat as is I say not as how I do”… did our parents have a similar line when we where growing up? Cheese and butter sandwiches were hard to give up. But I had always been up to experimenting with my body for years in a bad way so I had a go at this also. It took a few months with the fake bread and even that lost its pull. I now, no longer have that bloated feeling and my sinus is no longer blocked all the time. My body has appreciated the new experiments I have tried in the past few years and a side effect is I got lighter and healthier.
That has also been a side effect for me too sjmatsonuk. Without even trying, the excess weight I had been carrying for years just gradually fell off me. This has shown me that it’s not just about the calories you consume or the amount of food you eat (I still eat very well, and sometime my plate is fuller than others who have more weight on than I do), but about what and how you eat.
I remember when I first started making choices about changing what I ate it was very clear what my body did and didn’t want, I found when I ate something that didn’t agree with me the morning after I would wake up and I would feel tired or heavy, and so this time often became a time for me to reflect on what I had ate the previous day. And in cutting many foods out over the period of a few weeks I felt that the way I was living life was a completely different way to how I had previously been living.
Great simple advice from your friends – why don’t you try it and see for yourself? I was always dairy intolerant, even though I kept eating it, and I had never heard of gluten intolerance so I had no idea the havoc it was wreaking in my body. When Serge Benhayon started presenting on food and how it affects every aspect of our lives I decided to go gluten and dairy free as well. It does change everything and also once the gluten numbing has shifted from the body, it becomes very clear when something we eat doesn’t gel with us. I have never looked back – and thanks Rosie I only just made the connection that without gluten and dairy the need for coffee also just fell away.
I have lost so much weight and have so much more vitality since giving up gluten and dairy, I would recommend it to anybody.
Thank you Rosie, it’s interesting that you say that during your studies ‘l learned heaps, and I advised lots of clients to do this or try that, but I did not practice much of what I had learned’. Advice given by others to care for your body when they actually do it for themselves, when they actually live it in their own everyday somehow feels like much more true and reliable advice.
From my experience when I advise people to have a go at being gluten and dairy free their first reaction is ‘what is left to eat?’ For myself I felt like this as well at the beginning. However it’s about exploring a new lifestyle, discovering how often dairy and gluten are in the foods you eat, exploring new foods and how to cook with them and feeling and listening to your body. The hard part is starting but if you try you will feel a lot better within yourself.
I would totally agree here Rosie – it is so important to try it for yourself and with advice from a qualified nutritionist. I could not go back, I feel so different. I have not had hay fever since giving up dairy, I used to have recurrent tonsillitis, phlegm and sinus infections, I no longer have any of these issues. In the end it was my body, not my head that ensured it was a change in eating and lifestyle rather than a passing fad diet.
I also used to experience phlegm and sinus issues regularly and hay fever was an excepted part of my “allergies”. I have also experienced a clearing up of all these symptoms since going gluten and dairy free and and it is now very rare for me to get a blocked nose – whereas as before going gluten and dairy free I’m sure my nose was mostly blocked, only sometimes clear!
Awesome Rosie. How can we ignore the obvious signs that our body shows us when we stop eating gluten and dairy.
Now I have fully quit dairy and gluten from my diet. I said I was for some time, but sometimes when I didn’t felt that great or there was something to feel I didn’t want to feel I chose to snack and eat candy containing milk and gluten, it is great food to numb the body from feeling. I can feel what a lightness it brings in the body to not eat these kind of substances any more.
When it is raining and you are already wet, another drop of water does not make a difference. When I swim in gluten and dairy, it is very difficult to know what is the cause of my dis-ease. Only when you stop swimming there and your body is clear, you have the chance to realise easily that there are foods that affect you and others that do not.
I was deeply addicted to Gluten and dairy… giving up toast seemed harder then giving up smoking… true! … and yet like Rosie all the signs were there as to what these foods were doing to me. What a relief to be free of yet another addiction.
How simple but so true Rosie, just listening to our bodies makes such a difference. What a contrast a few months can make to our lives.
A great blog Rosie reflecting beautifully by example how when we listen, our bodies tell us exactly what is needed to support us to live with true vitally. Thank you for all that you share.
Rosie I really like your willingness to change your diet despite loving cheese. As you discovered this willingness paid off in your improved energy and wellbeing which has also occurred in my own life from also removing gluten and dairy.
Hi Rosie, thank you for your article. Its not about subscribing to the latest fade, just simply listening to our bodies. I too changed my diet some years ago and felt so much better for it. Since doing this, over the years my body has become more and more sensitive to foods that do not truly support, there is sometimes a struggle between wanting to eat certain foods and then being stuck with the consequences later on. I have found it is so worth listening to our bodies because when we do every cell sings with joy and this alone is better than any food.
Your blog inspires me to keep listening to my body and refining my food choices Rosie. Thank you.
I agree Leone, Rosie’s blog reminds us simply that listening to our body is the key to knowing what foods to eat and what works for us individually. A lovely reminder that our bodies are always refining what is needed as we evolve.
It’s not for others to tell us what to eat, it’s for us to make the choice to feel what to eat. I have proven this time and time again within my own body. It’s a nice way to live, to listen to my body.
Hi Rosie, I really enjoyed reading this again. In my own food history there has been some very obvious ones that produced such strong negative effects (like gluten and dairy) that they absolutely had to go out of my diet, however I find that there are a lot of less obvious foods that have the “healthy” moniker but for me are not. Eggplant for me recently had to go even though years ago it was ok, sure it’s a healthy food but it’s definitely not healthy for my body anymore. Once I started tuning into my body I found I had to stay tuned in with an openness because my body would go through changes which meant certain foods that were once ok now had to be let go of. I really can’t categorise any food because my body has so many changing needs that all I can do is listen and remain open.
Absolutely Melinda, ‘listening and remaining open’ to my body is definitely a key to what brings a healthy relationship between me and my food choices.
Lovely addition Melinda- thank you- your comment created a moment for me to pause and feel if I am eating anything at the moment I know already is not suitable. I find I often have a sense of what needs to go well before I will let the food fall away. What I do appreciate is how responsive my body is and as you say it is like a continual conversation and refinement. When my body gets tired or a headache from a food this is definitely a deterrent for me but there are other symptoms like a mild raciness or bloating and I drag out letting go of the suspect food. What is freeing though is that this process is in sync with my body so I don’t need will power – I simply don’t want to live in an unwell body.
Yes absolutely Rosie…it amazes me too that we gain all this knowledge, yet ignore it. Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine lives the ‘talk’ and that I love and find very inspirational… nowhere before had I come across an institution like this.
Great to read Rosie. Healthly body healthy mind. I’m amazed how I use to eat too, thinking I was able to eat anything – and I did. I didn’t really care what I ate just as long as it stopped me from feeling my stirred up feelings. I was stirred up about life that did not feel right – I was not being responsible for dealing with my hurt and I was holding back my truth — food was a numbing escape from this.
My life is very busy now, not feeling sleepy or bloated is important to me, and remaining consistent and to be able to have the clarity in my thinking I require to complete what I need to. I’d rather quality of thought than being down on life any-day, and food plays a big part
The wisdom of my body can still surprise me. Just like you, a lot of the times I ignored what it tried to tell me. But when I do listen I notice that my body is willing to tell me more and more. We are very sensitive and are able to feel so much, it is really amazing!
So true Annelies the body has so much to say if we committed to listening – the partnership I have with my body today requires great honesty.
It’s amazing how when we are completely engulfed in something, regardless of its affects, like food with all the symptoms certain foods can bring or how emotions can make us feel drained and rubbish, that there is a pattern of thinking that says “I need it/can’t live without it” or “There’s no way out/this is life”. And yet that is not the case as Universal Medicine has presented that everything is a choice. We are not ever stuck, just choosing to see no way out of our situation until we entertain those what if questions like “What if I cut this out of my life and felt the difference?”
I too have found that I simply feel better not eating gluten and dairy. Although it is common place, I am still amazed at how hard it can be to eat out and avoid these foods and I find it difficult when I am travelling. Still, I wouldn’t go back to eating these foods again – it just isn’t worth it for the sake of my whole wellbeing.
I agree Helen it can be difficult to find gluten and dairy free food when eating out and still it is not worth it because it is so unpleasant to be feeling quite well and then after having eaten feel unwell- so a little bit of hunger these days is better than eating and needing to slumber. Equally unpleasant as feeling sleepy after food is feeling a racy buzz – so I also take care to order food in particular without vinegar.
When almost everything we get in shops and restaurants contains either gluten and dairy, or often both, how do we know how we feel after a meal is not our natural way of being? Bunged up sinuses/bloating/heaviness after a meal were just something that would happen so constantly, and be normal for me, and I probably didn’t even think they were happening. It was only when I started experimenting with avoiding certain food I realised that my body does react and feel different and those things needed to not happen.
It feels like the refinement of choosing foods that truly supports us is a never-ending process.
I agree, the body is changing all the time so of course our diet should be.
I knew dairy made me ‘snotty’ and pimpley, but I put up with it because I couldn’t image life without cheese, ice-cream and chocolate. It was only when I observed extreme misbehaviour in my son after eating dairy and his obsession with cheese (he would bite through the plastic covering of the cheese while sitting in my shopping trolly) did I truly realise the effect food can have on the whole body. Cutting gluten and dairy out of our family’s diet is one of the kindest things we have done for ourselves – so many symptoms, aches, pains and over-the-top emotions have disappeared, many of which we had never even considered were related to what we eat.
I love the point you make here Carmin about how food actually effects the whole body, I have found that in eating something that doesn’t support me then I can actually feel it in different parts of my body and can effect me in a variety of different ways.
Thanks for the realness Carmin and Rosie. I have also watched kids I know have all sorts of emotional reactions to food – I have (consistently) heard the noise in a household go up noticeably after a bowl of ice-cream, setting off a lot more screaming and sometimes leading to tears. I have also spent time with a little boy and with every emotion that came up for him he would ask for a glass of milk. I know for myself I have used dairy food and dairy substitutes to pacify and dampen my emotions too.
Carmin, I would never have attributed my spotty skin to gluten, but clearer skin was a lovely consequence of giving it up. My skin improved even more when I removed dairy from my diet; again not what I was expecting. A whole raft of other minor ailments disappeared for me too, leaving me feeling fitter and healthier now in my fifties than I did in my twenties and thirties.
I can relate to you in full Rosie. I also stopped eating gluten and dairy just to give it a go and because it made sense to me, but I always thought I would have a last pizza in a couple of months after starting eating gluten and dairy free. The truth is I felt so good that I never had that last pizza as when I felt how my body was without gluten and dairy (really good) there was no way I wanted to ‘ruin’ that.
I like to add on your amazing command Lieke – I also not want ruin that feeling good in my body – for me stopping eating gluten was the best medicine ever because it healed my upcoming asthma. How awesome is that and how cheap for the medical health system.
When you live among the blind, nobody shows you how to open your eyes. Something similar is happening when it comes to the food and drugs we take in. As a society we are aware how much excesses hurt us but we are completely unaware how any dose of many of our common foods and drugs hurts us – alcohol, gluten, dairy, caffeine among them.
The difference it makes in one’s life after one has dealt with the emotional need for these foods is absolutely amazing.
Well said Christoph. When we choose to remain blind to any truth and worse, when the blind continue to lead the blind, it’s like we all stay lost in the darkness and no one can discern, see and feel the light of truth that is at all our fingertips.
I agree Suse. One of the strangest experiences in all of this work was just how accessible it has always been and how accessible it is – just breathe gently through your nose and you are on the bridge, continue and connect to your inner heart and you are there. So simple, so strange that hardly anybody knows.
Further, our excesses of anything do indeed hurt us. With society’s escalating rates of such issues as exhaustion, obesity, food intolerances and eating disorders the combined impact of all of these on our health and well being should be a concern for us all. Like you Christoph, I have no doubt there is an emotional component that is feeding these rates and excesses. To address these issues we all need to support each other to collectively address these issues, for the more we hide behind these underlying emotions with our excessive behaviours and ways, the worse we feel. I am finding that the more I work on myself and deal with my emotional hurts and disappointments as they come up in my everyday, I realise they are not nearly as annoying or painful as I make them out to be. They are certainly not as agonising as living in the constant retardation and the layers of fear that you create to prevent you from feeling them.
I didn’t realise what an impact eating gluten was making to my health until I took it out of my diet; the change in my well being was phenomenal. There is no way it will ever be part of my diet again as I now choose to listen to my body very carefully and it has spoken very loudly and clearly how delighted it is that I am finally gluten free! Loved your sharing Rosie!
I love that, 3 months turned into 6 which turned into 2 and a half years haha must have been an awesome change. I found with all the substitutes in the supermarkets it was super easy to make the switch as well. One thing I have found though is that once you start listening to what’s going on, refining what foods in your diet feel good for you never stops. You body never stops communicating.
Great blog Rosie, the proof really is in the (gluten-free, dairy-free) pudding!
When we make the choice to change our diet based on how our body feels, it’s very empowered. If I make changes because of diets, rules or what some expert tells me, it usually does not feel good and leads to feelings of deprivation so the tension created by the effort to not eat it wins and I “give up”. It’s very disconnecting to eat like this because there is no reference to the body, or ones own built up wisdom about the body. I love your blog Rosie.
Hi Rosie, I’ve never been someone who tried to give up food of any type in the past until I realised what certain things were doing to my body and then they mostly fell away naturally and just tasted awful if I tried to eat them again. You certainly made a loving commitment to your body by going gluten free and dairy too, inspiring to hear that you made an active choice to see how your body felt. Sugar is the one thing which I have begun to feel how strongly it affects my body and I have chosen to cut dramatically down in terms of anything except for fruit although I am feeling that too speeds up my system and makes my head fuzzy. Although fruit is a very natural food it converts very quickly to sugar and so for my body its just like eating a sugary dessert. Its really great to actually feel this going on since I then have a choice what I do about it!
Judy, I too have now mostly cut out all fruits as I simply felt too racy after eating them. It certainly is amazing to have this awareness of how foods feel in my body having spent most of my life completely obliviously to effects of what I was eating and not then understanding the high and lows that followed. It’s only with this knowing and wisdom that I can then impart this to my children so they may grow their own understanding of what food feels like for them. A lot of the time they don’t want to know about it as they want to eat whatever they want to and be like everyone else but on some level they hear it. My son recently did a project on food groups at school and I was saddened to note that there were no mention of how food feels in the body, only what we should be eating but according to who exactly? Hail the day when the education system starts asking children how foods make them feel, for they know. I once asked my children what foods made them feel good and what foods didn’t and they knew exactly! Our inner wisdom is so very clear.
So I’m not the only one that gets a fuzzy head when eating to much sugar ! I find it really hard to concentrate and my whole body feels like a buzz box. Thanks for sharing Judy.
Wow Rosie what a commitment you have made and what an amazing result came out – that is incredible. If we allow ourselves to feel our bodies more than there be a change that we discover things we would not think about – it is really a discovery worth making.
Good on you Rosie for making the commitment to experiment and see for yourself how your own body responded to different foods. After all our bodies belong to us and it is therefore us who need to be empowered to care for them in the best possible ways. This is the simple message of universal medicine.
Thanks Rosie, It really is as simple as that. You have to try it for yourself to really know the difference. Once I had experienced not having gluten and dairy for a week only, I could never go back and eat it ever again! No more gluten and dairy for me! It was such a relief to stop and feel the changes in my body.
This is great in showing us how we can still have the knowledge of how harmful certain products can be yet still continue to have them for own needs, it’s like going to a Doctor and them saying “you need to quit smoking to help improve your health” but when you leave you know they’re a smoker so it doesn’t hit home as much – being a living example offers so much more then being told what to do…
It is extraordinary what we feel we can’t do without, and then , when we have made some more self-loving choices, we can reflect and think gosh what took me so long to let go of that. Another mountain of dysfunction reduced to a molehill of an easily released peccadillo.
Great post Rosie. We negate our bodies to such an extent by the foods we choose to eat, we don’t even feel how it is affecting us. Or is it just possible we are not being truly honest with ourselves and don’t want to feel how it is affecting us, because we are hooked on the comfort and taste. It’s worth being willing to let go of the Gluten and Dairy consumed for the opportunity it gives us to feel how it affects us, or at least it has been for me.
Rosie this is great and so simple, your words, “….so I never even considered that the way I was feeling could be a result of what I had chosen to eat”. Eating, and moreover eating to support and nourish or love the body through self-analysis as opposed to giving it over, and even passing off responsibility to what ‘another expert’ says is empowering and worth all the effort as you share here.
This is so true Ariana, we can make ourselves so numb particularly with foods containing gluten and dairy, that we not only do not feel our pain but cannot even feel the cold. It was when I decided to feel again instead of numbing myself that I turned a corner. I can see how others could think ‘why would you want to feel if there is only the cold and our hurts to feel?’. Well, I can say without a doubt that these hurts are far less painful than the damage I inflicted on my body to avoid them in the first place and there is far more to feel such as truth, joy, harmony and of course love! And further more once I actually allowed myself to feel the hurts I coveted for so long I realised that I had been holding myself and the world at ransom for what amounted to be self centred misconceptions and misunderstandings derived from very strange ideals and beliefs about how things ‘should be’. This freed me to get on with a full life as opposed to the halfhearted, given up one, full of hurt!
It is very easy to accept our state of being as just who we are and not consider that it can change. We don’t connect the dots to the fact that everything matters. The body can be so numb that it just cannot feel the consequences of our choices.
It’s true too for me, the body stopped presenting various problems when I cut out dairy, wheat & sugar from my diet. My body keeps refining what it likes to be fed and I love how I can now feel that and make the necessary adjustments to my diet. This gives my body the best possible chance to support me for good health.
Hi Rosie – I felt a tremendous change in my body when I made the choice to omit gluten and dairy from my diet over the years and I have never looked back.
I’ve noticed the more I am in tune with my body the more it is telling me! If I eat something now and did not feel into what my body needed first, my body feels awful and the food just seems to sit there. I have to be careful that my mind is not overriding my body as this can happen so quickly and I pay the price later! If only we were allowed to feel our into bodies as children and not be overridden by the parental ideals and beliefs about food, it may not be the problem that it is today. A great reflection, Rosie.
Dear Rosie, from very early on we are given things that numb us from feeling clearly (food, TV, sport etc). Once numb we are less able to feel when the next numbing thing comes along. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, who falls asleep in the poppy fields, we end up sliding out of real life entirely. It is insidious and endemic !
A great sharing Rosie – so true the body never lies. I know at times I have ignored what my body is telling me and I have felt sluggish or bloated after. I now choose foods that nourish me and make me feel lighter and my energy levels are better now than 20 years ago.
A great reminder to “listen to the body” and feel what foods the body requires. A food diary sounds a good idea. Thanks Rosie
Thanks Rosie for sharing your blog , I like you, loved my cheese and would eat it with loads of sourdough bread or crackers, pizza etc they would always be organic and wholemeal no additives and expensive not wanting to put some nasty processed food with added poisons into my body. Through ill health I decided to stop gluten and diary – what a change in a few weeks my body felt totally different and with it an understanding of what these so called foods did to my body – made it feel heavy , sleepy , lethargic , bloated , affected my breathing , gunked up , I could go on. The bottom line is I thought I loved these foods but they did not love me . Now I choose food that confirms love in me, leaves me with a beautiful warm yumminess and clarity ,ready for my next moment of the day.
Over the years, I have made many refinements to my diet, based on learning to be honest with the effects food was having on my everyday health. I was not overweight, but often exhausted, and definitely wired to the hilt. One of the greatest and most obvious changes to my energy levels occured after removing dairy and gluten from my diet. In time, I have made other refinements, such as reducing and finally removing sugar from my diet. I have also found in time that I have had to eat less, despite the fact that these days I work harder than ever before. The one thing I realised in all this time with food is that the most important thing is that you cannot just give up food. You need to understand the reasons behind why you are attracted to food that you know is no good for you. Once you start to deal with the underlying reasons behind your food choices, removing unhealthy food from your diet becomes much easier to do. In fact, it no longer becomes part of a “diet”, but just a natural part of the way that you live.
Changing your diet by leaving out gluten and dairy can be difficult because as you said Rosie, gluten and dairy are often found is the sneakiest of places. However no one can argue with your lived experience of how your body feels without gluten and dairy. Just knowing it or actually experiencing how it feels makes all the difference.
A great reminder to “listen to your body”. Thank you Rosie for writing this.
It is really important that we come from a knowing of the body and not the knowledge of the mind alone. With some things we can do this by experience as you describe here, with other things we actually instantly know when we allow ourselves to feel and be honest, sensitive and loving.
Great sharing Rosie. It can be easy for us to try and adopt a diet based on what we think is going to be good for us. My experience in the past has been that these particular diets just don’t last. But if there is something that I want to explore with food in terms of potentially giving something up, I will feel into how it is in my body. I then find that if I am honest and it doesn’t feel great in my body, it is much easier to give up and to not want it again. This is how I gave up gluten, dairy and alcohol. I haven’t had a relapse in 5 years.
Thank you Rosie, for you sharing on this subject. It is so interesting to look at why we tend to know for the other what would be beneficial for them but are not considering that same good for ourselves first. If we are not living what we advise to other people our advice will be always empty and imposing. Instead if we live it, everything in our expression will emanate the truth of what we live and we will just share from that instead of that we are imposing an ideal or belief on another.
Hi Rosie, I also had a lot of the ailments you describe in your article, and have noticed a marked improvement in my health since cutting out dairy and gluten.
A great article Rosie and awesome reminder of the power in listening to our bodies and how the tendency to override it’s sometimes very loud disapproval of our choices, is only at our own detriment.
Thank you Rosie. When I stopped eating gluten and dairy it was really clear the impact these foods had had on my body. A lot of my bloating and pain stopped, my sinuses cleared and I felt much lighter. Now I feel my body very differently, rather than just the pain and discomfort. It is my guide for what will or will not support me.
Brilliant article Rosie. It is true we can gain such amazing knowledge in this world, but if we choose to not listen to our bodies in regards to the knowledge learned then where is the love in that? Thank you.
I loved how once you started to listen to your body regarding food Rosie you were able to start the gradual process of removing the different foods from your meals. If we do it without feeling it in our body first, then the chances are we will go back and start eating them again. I know once I have felt it for myself and what it does to me it makes the choice to cut the food out all together so much easier.
I just found my blog that I wrote over 2 years ago and have thought about how much has changed since writing it. I still do not eat dairy or gluten and it has become so normal I cannot imagine eating it. My relationship with food has changed so much as I no longer have the same cravings or wish I could eat certain foods.
It seems to me that there is no “right” or “wrong” but just a sense of knowing what works for my body and that is forever changing. There is no end point and that’s it, because how I live each day, has an effect on what my body needs as far as fuel and nourishment.
I agree Rosie. When I first decided to cut gluten and dairy from my diet I shared the general opinion that this was a ‘bit weird’ and ‘food faddish’ but as I began to feel the increase in vitality in my body it became normal for me. I have since gradually eliminated and reduced other ingredients from what I eat as I listen to and refine the fuel my body is asking for.
It’s interesting how we can think we are healthy and yet still suffer with bloating, stomach aches, skin problems, aches and pains etc.
I was exactly the same Rosie, thought I could eat anything and scoffed at people who ate healthily! Now 9 years on 20 kg lighter — that’s a whole lot of weight as I found out recently when weighing my bag for travel its REALLY REALLY HEAVY – and feel much better for not having these two elements in my diet.
I too always thought I could eat what I like. Cheese was my favourite food and I couldn’t imagine giving it up. I was convinced it was good for me packed with calcium. When I decided to experiment with not eating cheese I was sure I wouldn’t feel any different but my body soon showed me how wrong I had been. It has been the same with taking gluten out of my diet. I find it fascinating that so many of the foods and drink that I thought of as a treat were no treat for my body.
I love your using the word ‘experiment’ Mary. With all the do’s and don’ts, mustn’ts and can’ts of food gurus, it feels super important to stay with experimenting and let my own body make the choice…which has included re-introducing some foods which my body does now like.
Love your blog Rosie..it was only when I eliminated gluten and dairy from my diet, that I was able to feel the food and drinks that are nourishing to my body and those that are harmful to it.
Great blog Rosie, I felt the same about eating gluten and dairy until I started to substitute them with gluten free and non dairy products. The difference I felt in my body was truly remarkable. I felt lighter, less bloated and my head was a lot clearer. And to top it all, weight loss is the icing on top of the gluten free cake!!
I love how you speak about the body Rosie and that you had to feel the effects in your own body and that’s it’s from here we can make the choice to change – otherwise it does just remain as knowledge.
“So I got to feel how the body never lies. What I identified was that I had not often stopped and listened to my body – then even when I did, I ignored what it was trying to tell me.”
Wow profound words to hear Rosie thank you. Truly listening to our bodies is the only way forward if we want true health and vitality.
Yes Rosie, never having thought that I would be able to know what my body wanted, I too am surprised that I actually do and what a range of new tastes there are just waiting for me to explore,
Great point Ariana, that food can be a kind of medication that ‘helps’ us NOT feel…no wonder so many of us “Think” we ‘feel’ fine, are healthy and don’t need to try eating differently.
It was challenging at first but NOW…
I don’t miss any of the things I used to eat.
I could never go back to eating the way I did!
Great example of true scientific experimentation – how you allowed yourself to experience what both gluten and dairy do in your body. I’d always known on some level both didn’t work for me, and yet I stopped and started with them, especially gluten, until eventually I got to a point where I said ok no more and it’s been amazing to feel how my body has changed. I’ve lost weight, I feel less foggy and more clear headed. I dropped dairy more gradually and again it’s been interesting to see how I get less sinus, I breathe better. Letting go both has really helped me. Sugar is still a work in progress for me, I have let it go a lot, but it’s still there and I’m looking at how it impacts me. With the changes I’ve made I feel so much lighter and feel more in my body. It’s great. Thank you for sharing your journey Rosie.
Hi Rosie, a simple clear blog of how you changed your diet and felt the effect in your body. Truly listening to our own body is the best medicine there is.
Thank you Rosie, reading your article I love the gentle manner you explored the effects on the body of a gluten and dairy free diet. Often I hear or read about the very strict eating regimes we push onto ourselves in order to achieve some sort of ‘ideal’ healthy weight or well being .Your approach is both fresh and inspiring.
Thank you Rosie, I love the way you came to your own decisions about what felt right for you, rather than following a prescribed diet or doing what someone else told you to do. Otherwise, cutting out certain foods can become quite miserable and more of a discipline rather than a loving choice to look after your body and listen to its responses to certain foods.
I love this article and also all the comments people have made. I too could not really feel my body until I gave up gluten, dairy and sugar. It was a gradual process and like you Rosie, I did it as an experiment to see how it felt in my body. I felt so good after giving up gluten that I then tried dairy and the last thing to go was sugar. As a result I am now not so numbed and can actually feel more of what’s going on in my body. My skin has cleared up, having suffered with spots well into my adult life, and I no longer get so bloated. I also used to get lots of colds and have hay-fever. These are now no longer happening.
The food pyramid, currently presented as the basis of good nutrition in the western world, has most meals and snacks including wheat and milk as ingredients. Quite a few years ago I realised my body was telling me in no uncertain terms that eating this way wasn’t suiting it and I shudder to think back over the agonies I went through after dining out or eating creamy sauces etc.
I stopped eating gluten first and the improvement in the way I felt was more than payoff for the effort I needed to put into checking labels and asking for support with deciphering menus when I was dining out. I found leaving dairy out easy as I’d always hated drinking plain milk. I’d got into the habit of flavouring it as a child at school. It was the only way I could get it down my throat. The weak link in the chain and the thing I found the hardest to stop eating was chocolate. I knew it was laden with fat and sugar yet, it held a siren call for me for ages until I saw it wasn’t providing an ounce of nutrition to my body. My health improved exponentially once I stopped eating dairy and gluten.
I have left the choice up to the rest of my family members and I have seen a corresponding dawning of awareness in them that their food choices affect how their body feels.
I too ignored what my body was trying to tell me until I could no longer ignore the pain and discomfort I was getting after eating certain meals. My level of wellness increased exponentially once I decided to give eating dairy and gluten-free a go and it’s been one of the best things I have ever done for myself.
Thanks Rosie, this is a truly inspiring post. It reveals how important it is to make food choices based on what our body tells us rather then what our mind and all the information out there says. Thank you for sharing.
What a lovely blog. So simple and no drama. I find that people always tend be a bit emotional about food, especially when they want to change their diet. It is an inspiration how you just gave the no gluten no dairy thing a go and observed how you felt with that! Thank you for sharing Rosie.
Mary this is hilarious ‘all the dairy had dissolved!’ out of the cheese. I had a similar situation in a paleo restaurant that advertised itself as gluten and dairy free – I noticed they had ghee on the chalk board and when I questioned the ‘dairy free’ – I was told it does not count as dairy as most people with a dairy allergy are fine with ghee. They were not impressed when I asked to be shown on the menu what was actually dairy free and it turned out a lot of the menu was not dairy free after all. It was a good lesson to follow my hunches when eating out and really take care of my dietary preferences and not shy away from making them clear.
Ariana, your comment made me laugh out loud: “I never used to know what it meant when people said ‘Listen to your body’. I didn’t feel my body at all unless it was shouting at me in pain”.
And although I laughed I also felt the seriousness of the reality that I too had lived – no clue what people meant when they said ‘listen to your body’ unless it was screaming at me in pain!!
I have just taken a moment to read all the amazing comments that you lovely people have made on my blogs!
And I too can see how I couldn’t feel and was not able to listen to my body at first because I was so disconnected and had really good blinkers on.
Food diary – GREAT – so good you brought it up Rosie!
It’s a wonderful way of being honest about what we ingest. I have worked in the health food industry most of my adult life and I often heard people say: Oh, I don’t eat sugar, or I hardly ever have dairy – however, when they put on the paper all the things they’ve eaten that day they find, like you did, that sugar / dairy crept into so many things – and it is then much harder to ‘fool ourselves’ – not that we truly can.
Food diary is a bit like ‘hard core’ evidence in court – to put it playfully 😉 – becomes harder to claim: Oh, I hardly ever have… or even: I don’t have any…
I relate to this Dragana, as a herbalist I have often asked people about how much diary or sugar they consume, and they are not aware of the amount until they voice it out loud.
I love how simply and honestly this is written. It totally challenges the concept of a “diet”. Instead of eating to look better Rosie has named how we can feel better by choosing what foods suit our particular body. Really awesome blog.
I have to agree Rosie it really is shocking the impact dairy and gluten have on our health, and the extent of the ill effect, is not felt until we stop ingesting them.
I have always given my daughter the responsibility of making her own food choices, and its taken her much longer to feel whats really going on, but it has been really great to watch her eat and if she feels sick then figure out why.
I agree tonisteenson. The fact that there are no scientific studies speaks volumes. It makes sense, though. Where would you find the volunteers that truly stick to the diet? Instead the studies are designed in a way that they get inconclusive results which are shown as proof that it makes no difference whether you have gluten or dairy or not.
Thanks Rosie – Your posting resonated with me a lot – I too have felt these changes… ‘The body doesn’t lie’ and I find now that I am aware of it, my body actually has a lot to tell me… and I am continually working on listening to my body (when to exercise, what to eat, when to stretch, when to rest etc.). Sometimes I choose to override my body with my mind and choose to not listen, then I have to suffer the consequence later and learn from the consequence of the bloating, heaviness, tiredness etc… a constant learning.